


Pre-Flight Networking

by ArtemisTheHuntress



Category: Wolf 359 (Radio)
Genre: Continuing the running joke of Hui being really insistent about psi-waves and no one believing him, First Meetings, Gen, Hui is That Guy. Every field has one, Lovelace and Lambert meanwhile have just always been like this, Pre-Canon, The Lovelace Administration - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-24
Updated: 2020-07-24
Packaged: 2021-03-04 18:54:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 867
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25481224
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ArtemisTheHuntress/pseuds/ArtemisTheHuntress
Summary: Victoire Fourier meets her future coworkers for the first time.
Relationships: Victoire Fourier & Kuan Hui
Comments: 6
Kudos: 23





	Pre-Flight Networking

**Author's Note:**

> A little scene that struck me this afternoon and then I had to write it, as you do.
> 
> Lovelace's crew are an extremely smart, extremely competent, extremely well-balanced team of total weirdos.
> 
> Also, I think it's cute the implication that Hui and Fourier being on first-name terms meant they were close and comfortable with each other with a level of intimacy moreso than other members of the crew were, but nah, Hui and Fourier are on first-name terms because they're academics and that's just what academia is like.

It was supposed to be fun. Get-to-know-you, on Earth where it was safe and low-stakes before they were all stuffed in a tin can together at the far reaches of human space. It felt more like being stranded alone as the only visiting researcher from her university at a conference reception. The other astrophysicist on the team held his coffee easily, chatting with the tall burly Australian man whose name she had read in the introduction packet but which had entirely slipped her mind due to nerves. She clutched her tea, took a deep breath, willed herself not to appear quite so jittery when the Australian (Fisher! Right, that was his name, Fisher) disengaged to head back to the front counter and the astrophysicist turned to greet her—

She held out her hand, abrupt and nervous. “Victoire Fourier.”

He shook it, his smile easy, apparently not nervous at all. “Kuan Hui.”

This was the part she was never good at. First introductions had a script, but then came… _networking_. Make a good impression. Don’t come off strange, don’t insult your new colleague, show interest, show politeness, show that you’re worth coauthoring with. And co-living with, in this case. For two years. In space. Oh, dear. “Ah, yes, Dr. Hui, um—your, work with psi-waves, is very impressive. I…”

Her words fizzled under the rising sound of the much stronger voices right next to them.

“That isn’t—that isn’t how this _works,_ Captain—”

“Ah-ah, what did I _just_ say, mission hasn’t started yet. We’re at a café, we’re at a _beach,_ we are meeting each other like friends first and no one’s anyone’s commanding officer yet.”

“That’s not a good precedent to start, Captain, there’s no reason to establish an _informality_ like this as your first impression to the crew—”

“There’s no reason for you to establish a ‘no fun allowed’ zone as _your_ first impression to the crew, either. Just saying.”

“Sir—”

“Isabel.”

_“Captain Lovelace,_ this isn’t called for.”

“Gotta admit, this is the opposite direction these arguments usually go, so props for that, but you can _relax,_ you know, we’re not in space yet. Nothing trying to kill us right here except overbearing formality. C’mon, Samuel, right?”

“Lieutenant Lambert, sir.”

“So, Samuel.”

“Captain, is this necessary—”

“Sam?”

“Captain, I don’t see why you’re so insistent—”

“Sammy.”

_“No.”_

“Gotcha. I have to say, Sam, if you’re going to be _communications_ officer up there, you really should work on the listening part of that equation. Two-way street and all that.”

_“You’re_ the one not listening!—”

Dr. Hui raised his eyebrows at her, his lips pressed firmly together in an amused grimace. Everything felt so absurd Victoire couldn’t help but burst into giggles. It should have been embarrassing, but instead, it felt like a relief, like tension broken.

“You can just call me Kuan,” he said. “I promise I won’t be weird about it.”

“Victoire,” she responded. “Likewise.”

“Well, Victoire, nice to meet you.” He tilted his head, indicating the still-crescendoing argument behind him. “What’s _their_ deal?”

(“If I pull rank on you and _order_ you to cut the rank crap for one afternoon, will that make you happy?”

“No!”)

“Military types,” Victoire said. “No idea.”

“I’ve been glad I flaked out of that life before, but damn, never quite so much as now,” Kuan said. “Gonna be an… _energetic_ two years up there, huh. Aren’t we supposed to have another lowly civilian to even out the numbers against all that military posturing?”

“Maybe he skipped,” Victoire said. “Didn’t want everyone staring at him while his commanding officers make a scene in a café down the street from our new workplace.”

“We’ll all be gone in space for two years, no one’s gonna remember that they will inevitably kick us out in about twenty minutes,” Kuan said.

(“’Ey, Cap’n Isabel—Sam—I was at the counter for five minutes, what _happened?_ You’re both being loud as, people are staring. No—c’mon mate, it cannot be that bad already, no I won’t give you your coffee until you stop shouting, that’s the rules.”)

“Well,” Victoire said, “If we’re meant to get to know each other, I looked up your work, your paper on the potential mechanisms for the production of your new class of psi-waves was fascinating.”

“You liked it? My whole department told me not to publish that. No respect for psi-waves. They’re real, I tell you, and Goddard’s the first institution willing to fund any research _proving_ it. That’s why you’re here, right? ‘New Methods for Detecting Esoteric Electromagnetic Signals Using Radio-Telescope Arrays’? I cited that in my application before I even knew you were on the team!”

“You did? I’m honored, I never thought that was one of my stronger ones, I was so worried about esoterics being dismissed as a useful class by Society consensus before it published. Peer-review was hellish.”

“It’s great! I haven’t worked much on the radio-telescope side, I would _love_ to incorporate your ideas into psi-wave research—"

(“Why do you have to already be like this?”

“Why do _you_ have to already be like _this?”_ )

“I think it’ll go well up there,” Victoire said.

Kuan grinned. “It’ll be quite the adventure, regardless.”

**Author's Note:**

> Cries. I love Lovelace's crew.


End file.
